Hero Down
by Akari78
Summary: When Janet gets abducted by the Serpent Society in a staged battle, Carol is bent on rescuing the woman she loves, but soon finds that the task isn't as easy as she'd wish. The Society is smarter this time, almost too smart, and the whole team and more will be needed to find their beloved size-changer before it's too late. But in New York City, there's plenty of places to hide.


**Hero Down**

**Taken**

"What the hell happened back there?" She screamed, pale face flushed with fury, yellow energy glowing around her.

"I don't know! I was standing right next to her, and then the next thing I know, that long armed snake lady grabbed her!" The armored man shouted back in defense, arms moving besides him in emphasis.

"You were supposed to watch her back!"

"I was!"

"Then obviously you weren't watching close enough!"

"Since when couldn't she handle herself, it's not like she's a liability or anything!"

"That doesn't mean you just ignore her when she's in need!"

"Well if it's so easy to watch out for her why didn't you?"

"I was fighting three of them at the same time! What about you? One oversized snake with some blades too much to deal with?"

"Enough!" Shouted Captain America, moving himself between the furious Avengers, pushing them forcibly apart. He glared at the two, trying to stop them from coming to blows, which considering the fury across Ms. Marvel's face he was surprised they had yet to. She was pushing back against his hand, Iron Man standing still, staring at her behind his face plate. "We're all upset that she's-"

"No! You're not!" Carol turned on him, seething and glaring at him. "Now let go of me, I have to go after her!" She demanded, grabbing his wrist and shoving his arm away.

Before she could turn around though, the soldier was cutting her off again, stepping around the rubble of their battle to block her way to the long tunnel that burrowed deep underground in the center of the street. "Hold up! We don't know what could be down there," he said, hands in the air, "we have to be smart. Tony, anyway you can identify traps?" The super soldier asked the genius who at last dared to lowered his face plate.

Nodding his head, he crossed over towards the entrance of the tunnel, gingerly stepping around the blonde haired woman who's fists were clenched tightly, jaw rigid. "Carol, I know you're emotional right now, I know that, but you need to stop and think," Captain America urged her, a hand on her shoulder. She looked down at the broken road, rubble all around them, unwilling to answer him. "I want her back as much as you do."

Instantly her head snapped up, and she shoved herself in his face. "No, you don't, and you don't know what's going on in my head right now so don't even try to pretend." Came the gritted words, Carol whipping around and taking off down the tunnel a moment later. It was pitch black within, twisting and turning sharply, just large enough around for her to not have to worry about hitting her head. Flying down into the darkness, yellow energy emitting around herself to shed some light within the passageway, Carol tried to fight back her emotions.

Captain was right about one thing, she couldn't be so angry she wasn't thinking straight. But that didn't mean she wouldn't be angry at all, no it only made her more and more upset. As she worked her way down the twists and turns of the corridor, she was fighting the urge to just blast her way down a straight and new one. Mind replaying the images she'd just been horror to witness, Wasp's scream echoing in her ears.

The call for help had been simple. Every member of the Serpent Society had been there, waiting for them, in the middle of New York City. Carol couldn't figure out what they'd wanted at first, why they'd fought a handful of police officers and then demanded the Avengers showed up. She'd thought it was for revenge, maybe they wanted to make a name for themselves again, added with the fact that the Avengers had apprehended them robbing a bank a few months ago, and all the times before and after it that they'd stopped them. Being heroes meant people would come after them when they got beat, they make enemies and a nemesis by being a force for good, it was always part of the job.

A fight broke out in a moment, the Serpent Society against the Avengers, brutal and unrelenting. They had been stronger too, something about them more calculated then before. Like they'd meticulously planned for this, weeks after weeks of deciding how to handle the situation. Everything they did countered the Avenger's actions. Carol threw one of them this way, Iron Man blasted repulsor beams, Hawkeye fired some specialized arrow that way, they were ready every time. It had made her skin crawl.

And now she could see just why it had seemed so staged, they'd had one specific goal, and it wasn't to defeat them, it was to take one of them; to take Wasp, it was all they'd wanted. Just had to keep the Avengers busy enough to do it. Anaconda had grabbed Wasp as Carol defended herself from multiple attacks from Rattler, Death Adder and King Cobra. The blonde had looked over at the sound of Janet screaming in alarm, only to get hit with one of Rattler's electricity bolts, sending her sailing back into a building.

By the time she'd freed herself from the rubble, Janet, and the Serpent Society, were gone. Immediately they called in the rest of the Avengers, all but Black Panther and Thor arriving within a half hour. But she didn't care, she'd find Janet on her own if she had to.

The tunnel opened up into a collapsed subway tunnel, the air wet and heavy from years of isolation, dust hanging in the open space. Iron Man was searching around for clues to where they'd gone as five different sized passageways opened up between crumbled concrete and stone. Vision appeared from a wall as Carol crossed over to them. "There is no sign of them." The machine said as he approached the billionaire as well.

"What? How is that possible?" Iron Man balked, turning and looking at the tunnels himself.

"I do not know, but there is no sign of them. It is possible that there were more tunnels than when we arrived, and the Society collapsed them behind them in order to throw us off their trail." Suggested Vision.

"I can call in Ant Man, he could probably use plenty of insects to search the tunnels all at once, or crumbled ones too." Iron Man suggested, referring to Scott Lang, the second Ant Man. "I might also be able to track her via her Avengers key card, if she still has it on her."

The android silently agreed, and before anyone could say anything altered his density and began to search through the rubble itself in the collapsed subway tunnel. "I'm going down here," Carol announced, pointing towards the first path way she'd walked up to, "see where it leads." Her words were tight, refusing to let the others disagree with her. Captain America, Yellowjacket and Hawkeye had made their way down into the open tunnel by the time she'd started down the middle one of the five, speeding down as quickly as she safely could.

It was an old maintenance tunnel by the looks of it, rounded at the top and perfectly straight, a small path on either side and a small track in the middle. She whistled past it all like a shooting bullet, determined on chasing down the Society and beating all of them into a pulp. There wasn't a single shred of her rage that she would hold back when she'd caught them all. It just kept going, slowly starting to feel like an endless path, Janet perhaps not even at the finish of it.

Frustration boiled up the S.W.O.R.D. agent, the yellow energy around her body bubbling and mounting, making her a beacon in the pitch black. She could see a wall rising up before her, and it approached far faster than she could anticipate, having not realized of just how fast she was going. The woman put on the brakes only a moment before she would have slammed into the wall, panting as her mind reeled. "Jan!" She shouted, punching the wall, denting it tremendously but not breaking entirely through. It had to have been completely solid, utterly the end of the passageway.

"No!" She screamed, whipping around and taking off back down the shaft, getting back into the larger subway section in only a few minutes, and then diving down another tunnel. They kept ending the same way, nothing but a solid wall of earth and concrete to stop her. By the time she'd checked each of them, her nerves were utterly shot once more. She had hoped that there could have been a way to track them, to chase right after her teammate and girlfriend's captors, but it seemed like that wasn't going to be it.

Knees giving out beneath her as she returned to the subway section for the fifth time, she looked at the ground in defeat. "Jan..." She whispered, fighting back the tears that so desperately wanted to flow.

"Carol, I'm sorry, there's no sign of her," Clint said softly as he walked over to her, Ant-Man the only one remaining there searching. "Tony went back to the mansion to try and trace her card, but so far it hasn't seemed to work. Ant Man says he'll keep looking until he needs to go back to his daughter." He waited a few moments, watching the stonewalled expression on the woman's face and then sighed. "We're not going to give up Carol, I promise."

"I know," she whispered, getting to her feet slowly and starting up the tunnel to the surface, "I just wish it were enough."

* * *

Carol flicked the light switch on, walking inside numb. She blinked at the tasteful furniture and cream walls, soft carpet meeting her feet. She shut the door to the apartment behind her, slowly stuffing the key inside the pocket of her jacket. Dressed now in a t-shirt, jeans, boots and a leather jacket, her hair tumbling around her messily, the woman peered around the apartment.

About this time of the day, if she didn't have monitor duty or there was no crisis in the world, Janet would have been preparing a late dinner or watching some show on the television and say they'd be ordering pizza or something of the sort instead. As her gaze drifted to the living room portion of the flat, her heart wrenched inside her chest painfully, Carol having to turn away and make her way to the fridge.

After hours of flying through the city looking for her girlfriend, she'd ended up with nothing but exhaustion and heartache. She felt dumb for thinking that the Serpent Society would be above ground where they could find them. In truth, she hoped that they'd have gotten a ransom call by now, because that way they'd find them. But no, twelve hours later and still no call, no demands, just nothing but a mocking silence.

Pulling a beer out of the fridge, Carol slowly made her way towards the living room and slumped down on the dark couch. She stared at the flat screen that rested on an entertainment center across from her, not moving to turn it on. The chilled drink just remained in her hand for a long while before she popped the top off and took a long swig.

_Where are you Janet? Are you unharmed? Are you being treated alright? _She wondered, staring at the blank screen. _Are you alive? _Jolting forward, Ms. Marvel shook her head furiously. "No, you will not go there, she is alive because she is Jan!" Carol said loudly to herself, open hand balling into a fist. With one big motion she lifted the bottle to her lips and gulped down more of it, letting a haze fill her mind. Her body was tingling somewhat, numb where the alcohol hadn't reached yet.

"Janet is a strong, resourceful woman, she can handle herself until we find her." Carol repeated to herself as she finished the drink, the bitter taste left in her mouth making her grimace. Twelve silent hours was killing her. As she retrieved herself a whiskey this time, her mind drifted to just what had filled those hours.

A lot of arguing with the others from frustration, countless hours spent sailing through the city searching, a lot of it running through the crowded streets when she'd thought she'd seen that auburn haired beauty, calling out time and time again her name only for it to end up being someone entirely else. Lingering around Stark, watching him with a hollow feeling in her gut, knowing he was trying but that he wasn't making any progress either. Everyone giving their condolences and promises, words of encouragement, bits of advice.

She didn't want to hear it, none of it. Carol could care less if they promised to find her, because she knew they would in time. But every second more was what was killing her, because despite all her powers and abilities, she was powerless to help Janet. There was no guarantee on the condition they'd find her, and Carol's mind was painting a thousand images of Wasp being harmed, tortured, brutally and inhumanely treated by those surgical freaks. She refused to allow the thought of Janet being dead slip its way back into her mind, blocking the idea completely as best she could, taking another drink for extra measure.

After around an hour or two of sitting there, lost in painful memories and worries, Danvers jumped up from the couch, she was half finished with the bottle of whiskey as she walked towards the bedroom, taking it along with her. Their shared bedroom instantly made Carol's heart wrench, and she had to avert her eyes from the paintings and pictures Janet had hanging on the slightly violet walls. She took another swig from the bottle before placing it on the nightstand and peeling the jacket off herself.

It killed her to have to rest, to have to spent time doing nothing instead of searching for Janet, but she knew just as well as the others that if they wore themselves ragged trying to find her, they were going to make mistakes that could cost them and Janet. So, she was going to try to sleep, but try was the operative word. Carol doubted she'd catch a wink despite how exhausted she felt both physically and emotionally.

She stripped the remaining clothing off herself, shoulders and back aching from the long, stressful day, not bothering to pick them up from where she'd senselessly discarded them. Crawling onto the queen sized bed, she didn't bother to get under the sheets, staring up at the ceiling in her underwear. Danvers blinked, holding the stoned expression for a few moments before she started to sob, body shaking violently on the lavender blanket.

Hands curled and uncurled continually into fists, gripping the blanket, twisting it, wrenching the fabric. Her eyes which had been distant from the shock, were suddenly filled with life, glassy and red as tears burst from the dam she'd built the moment the woman had been taken. Her lips opened with the loud cries that had at first been soft moans that soon picked up into screams of Janet and swears.

She sat up as she wept, feeling as if she were drowning in her own tears on her back. Hot streaks ran down her face, dampening her chest as she brought her hands to her eyes, trying to wipe the tears that seemed endless. Her chest heaved as another surge of emotion ran up her body as she realized that if she didn't find Janet, she might be lost forever. Another blurry glance to the empty space besides her on the bed only made it worse, and Carol's throat quickly became so raw she couldn't produce any more cries from it, instead mouth silently opening as tears flowed freely.

Her mind filled with nothing but tender moments with the auburn haired heroine, every memorable touch and look flooding and taking over. It pounded and ached like the rest of her body, her heart twisting itself in her chest, fire raging across her skin up her limbs. It felt like someone had just reached inside of her, and grabbed her heart, holding it in a painful grasp and slowly crushing it before her eyes.

When she'd finally cried herself dry, every bit of sorrow hanging up in the air, she felt dirty. Legs slowly hung themselves over the edge of the bed, tenderly stepping down onto the floor and stumbling towards the bathroom. She reclaimed the nearly finished whiskey along the way. There was no way she could sleep, her heart ached too much and she had no doubt any sleep would be filled with nightmares of Janet. The once fearless woman couldn't bring herself to face that just yet though.

Her fingers fumbled for the door handle, hardly enough energy or will left in herself to open it. She bumbled in, heading straight for the shower only to remember she was still slightly dressed half way there. Danvers quickly undid them and took another swig of the burning alcohol to finish it off. It was stupid to get drunk, but she couldn't be bothered at that point. The woman stepped into the shower, a chill running up her spine at the cold tile underfoot.

One hand went for the handle, another pressed itself against the tile in front of her to keep herself standing, head bent over to look at the drain. Cold water rushed out from the shower head, running down her lean and pale body in thick rivulets. Her hair fell in wet clumps, blonde locks sticking to her neck and face. It engulfed her whole body in only a few short breaths.

Before she could stop herself, fresh tears started to flow from her stinging eyes, and the woman raised her head up into the stream, face scrunched up with emotion. She tried not to cry again, feeling dirty, weak and pathetic about it in the first place. Her whole body was aching, her heart was shattered in a thousand different ways.

The hero crumbled.

* * *

**AN: So I actually have a personal rule about not writing more than three stories at a time unless it's a one-shot. I just broke this rule however, because as of late I've been hitting blocks on all three of my current stories. Hopefully by still writing this story, I'll be able to get back to them soon as well. Either way hope you're ready for some emotion and action here! This is also set about five months after the previous story "This Was Supposed to Be Our First Date". I'd love to hear what you think, especially of Carol breaking down, in a review. Thanks for reading!**


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